As the Tour enters the third week, much of the peloton is engaged in a battle of survival, fighting exhaustion. Procycling finds out how it feels to push through the final stages

Interviews Adam Becket, Alasdair Fotheringham & Sophie Hurcom Image Chris Auld

MARK DONOVAN Team DSM

"I EXPECTED THE FIRST WEEK TO BE CRAZY”

I am feeling alright post-Tour. I’m pretty knackered, but it’s nice to have got it done, nice to be finished. However, I’ve got a hard three weeks behind me now. I don’t have any experience of other Tours, I did the Vuelta last year, obviously, and this was another level, really.I expected the first week to be crazy, and it was, but it never really stopped, it never chilled out.Every day that could have been a breakaway saw a big, big fight, and it seemed like pretty much everyone after a week or two was capable of winning a stage, and so they all fought for it. Maybe the Vuelta wasn’t more relaxed, but the level just wasn’t quite as high.Whereas on one day at the Vuelta there were 10 guys going for the win, there are about 50 at the Tour.

The spectacle and everything add to the drama. Once you are into it, it feels a bit like any other race, but then you step back and you realise what you are in. There’s not really much you can do to recover during the race. You have to chill as much as you can, eat as much as you can, drink, and make sure you get plenty of sleep, then wake up and get yourself going again. You have good days and bad days, but a lot of the time it is just mental, it is up to motivation.

I was pretty much fine in terms of the crashes. I was happy to get through the first week unscathed. One small crash, but some of them were pretty scary and I was fortunate to avoid them.